Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002 War has many bad consequences. One of the worst is the stigmatizing of dissent. Yet sometimes dissent is the only thing that stands between us and catastrophe. According to the U.S. government, the mission of the current war was to root out the terror network of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and their Taliban support in Afghanistan. So what did the ...
Keep the Borders Open by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2002 This article was originally published in the January 2002 edition of The World and I. In times of crisis, it is sometimes wise and constructive for people to return to first principles and to reexamine and reflect on where we started as a nation, the road we’ve traveled, where we are ...
Freedom and Security in America and around the World by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2002 THE SHOCKING AND tragic events of September 11, 2001, have affected not only the United States but the rest of the world as well. This impact, however, is not limited to an increased awareness of the dangers from networks of international terrorists. Nor is it limited to a heightened awareness of ...
Farmers: Get a Job! by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002 It kind of makes me wonder what country I'm living in when I pick up the newspaper and read this from the Associated Press: "With crop prices mired near record lows, the government says farm earnings will drop 20 percent this year unless Congress enacts a new farm program or approves ...
Wrong Rights by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002 BRACE YOURSELF. We are about to witness the launch of a global movement to establish economic and social rights on a par with human rights. In other words, say the organizers of this movement, the right to food and health care is as legitimate as the right not to be tortured by ones government. (See The Economist, August 16.) A ...
Drug Laws: Terrorists Best Friends by James Bovard February 1, 2002 PRESIDENT BUSH, when signing the Drug-Free Communities Act on December14, announced: If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terror in America. Bush could also have added: If you quit drug laws, you join the fight against terror. How many more Americans should die in order to perpetuate the fiction that the U.S. government can completely control every farmer ...
Declare War before Waging War, Part 2 by Doug Bandow February 1, 2002 Part 1 | Part 2 Naturally, presidents and their aides have been creative in coming up with reasons to short-circuit the Constitution’s clear requirement. Those who thus torture the Constitution include many conservatives who normally proclaim the importance of “original intent. ” Except when they want to empower politicians to do what they want. One ...
Did the Founders of the Constitution Forget the Bill of Rights? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2002 After the Constitution was ratified in 1788, the states adopted the first ten amendments, which became known as the Bill of Rights. Given the importance of the provisions in those amendments, an obvious question arises: Why didn't the Framers of the Constitution include those provisions in the original Constitution, thereby obviating the ...
Government Needs to Lose Weight by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002 How ironic that just as an already-bloated government is taking on major new powers, it is exhorting us to lose weight. But that’s exactly what Surgeon General David Satcher is calling for. In his recently released “Call To Action To Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity,” Satcher writes, “Our ...
What the Enron Bankruptcy Doesn’t Mean by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002 A big company fails, maybe even commits wrongdoing, and in some people’s eyes that proves free markets are bad. This is what passes for logic these days. The full story on Enron is not known yet. But for the sake of discussion, let’s assume the worst: namely, that company management deliberately ...
Regulation Gave Us the Enron Scandal by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002 When pundits and politicians say the Enron scandal demonstrates the need for federal regulation of business, you have to be a little suspicious. They think everything demonstrates the need for federal regulation of business. It’s a reflex, that’s all. What seems to have been forgotten in all the blather about ...
FDR’s New Deal Legacy Is the Life of the Lie by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2002 The change that took place in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s was as remarkable as the Russian Revolution which had taken place decades before. Through his domestic and international New Deal philosophy and programs, President Franklin D. Roosevelt revolutionized the political and economic system of the United States. It is ...